Here is the place to find all things poemetry and beyond, at least as far as we see it.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

"Flatland" by Sam Cook

This poem begins with the poet asking the audience to remember something, which sets the remembered/story-like tone for the rest of the poem. This poem then performs a beautiful slow crescendo into sound and fury and violence--using both volume and using violent words to describe sound we reach this crescendo and abruptly stop as the character of the story transforms and resolves a conflict. This winds itself down from the metaphor of being a soldier and the poet concludes with reminding us of his role in the story--a bystander--and rages at his own passiveness, creating a smaller but no less powerful crescendo. The poem ends on a high note, with the poet shouting the very last lines as his voice breaks with the volume and the passion with which he's speaking.